Ted Olson (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)
Ted Olson, a Republican lawyer who championed gay rights by leading multiple marriage equality lawsuits, died Nov. 13 in Fairfax, Va., after suffering a stroke. He was 84.
As a lifelong conservative, Olson served as assistant attorney general in the Justice Department under President Ronald Reagan and represented President George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential election recount case that went before the U.S. Supreme Court. He later served as solicitor general in the Bush administration.
Despite his conservative roots, Olson became a steadfast advocate of marriage equality, leading the legal fight to overturn California’s ban on same-sex marriage, which voters had approved through Proposition 8 in 2008.
Together with Democratic lawyer David Boies, his former legal adversary in Bush v. Gore, Olson successfully argued before a California district court that Prop 8 was unconstitutional. After a series of legal challenges, the Supreme Court in 2013 upheld the district court ruling, allowing same-sex marriages to resume in California and invalidating part of a federal law that defined marriage as between a man and a woman.
Olson and Boies in 2013 also challenged the constitutionality of Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage. That same year, Olson broke with his party by publicly supporting the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which would prohibit employers from discriminating against LGBTQ workers.
“I feel very, very strongly that this country ought to stop discriminating against our citizens on the basis of their sexual orientation,” he told the Washington Blade in 2013. “It is unfair, it’s unreasonable, it’s unacceptable. It serves no purpose and it does a great deal of harm.”
In a career that spans almost sixty years, Olson argued 65 cases in front of the Supreme Court, according to his law firm, Gibson Dunn. He was often seen as a potential candidate for Supreme Court justice.
He represented Citizens United in a landmark 2010 Supreme Court case that removed limits on political contributions by corporations and labor unions. In 2020 he successfully argued against then-President Donald Trump’s attempt to deport “Dreamers” — undocumented minors whose parents brought them into the U.S.
Olson is survived by his wife, Lady Booth Olson, and two children.
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